Don't feed the fat kid.

I am so over this eating thing.  I have consumed more than I thought humanly possible in the past week.  Now its time to find a healthy way to not over stuff myself every time I see food.  It also doesn't help that my parents house is like a buffet that is open ALL of the time.  Yummm. I did everything I said I was going to while I was home minus the running, which basically made the week perfect.   (I did attempt to run with the dogs but they have worse A.D.D. than I do when it comes to running, so we gave up after a solid 10 yards).  By Sunday I was getting a little stir crazy and actually starting to miss the action of NYC.  Now that I am back, I am ready to return to NC, just can't win.


This week I am trying to get my life back in order since I am no longer starving myself or stuffing myself.  Tonight I am going to clean to prepare for Christmas decorations, maybe do a face mask, eat some lettuce and vegetables... caramelized brussel sprouts, probably, and hopefully continue my marathon of Lifetime/Hallmark Christmas movies I started while I was home.  Some of those are real tear jerkers, I know every single person reading this has teared up at least once, if not twice when watching one.  No shame.

If you are in need of an awesome face mask try this:


Not going to lie, its a little scary at first because its solid black and if it gets stuck in your hair, it will rip it out.  So follow the instructions...

If you are in need of a Dr. Suess motivational quote, read this:

  

And if anyone knows a baby I can steal for a day to put them in this awesome Burberry blinging baby suit, please let me know.  K thanks.

Back to NC!

And I am OFF!  I have not spent more than 12 hours in my hometown since last Christmas.  It is an understatement to say that I am excited.  I NEED to see my entire family including the mammals, Tess (dog) and Calvin (meow).  I am going to eat, eat, shop, sleep, eat, run, eat and sleep some more.  It is going to be AWESOME.  See you next Tuesday!

Kind of hookerish, eh?

Winning.

The only thing Charlie Sheen actually won at was coining the term "winning".  And thats just what I did.

Weigh in was this morning at 8:30am.  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it or not.  Not so much about making weight but actually living to see if I was going to do so. My weekend consisted of eating 2 egg whites and 4 green juices.  I caved and had two saltines last night before bed.    The hardest part was not being able to drink liquids after 6pm.  It doesn't sound like it should be that difficult but its shocking how much water your body actually needs.  So for the final results.  I came in at 126.5 when I needed 129.6.  I lost 12.2% of my original body weight.  So not only did I win, I KILLED it.  But that's what I do, go big or go home.  What I will not do anytime soon however is another weight bet.  DIET THE END. 

So now I can focus on things that I really like.  Like cooking healthy meals.  I leave tomorrow to go back to NC for a week but once I get back here are a few things that will definitely be happening in my kitchen.

Caramelized Brussel Sprouts:

Ingredients:
12-14 large brussels sprouts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
pinch sea salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted
Directions:
Slice each brussels sprout very thin until you have a mound of feathery brussels sprout ribbons. Heat the olive oil over medium high in a large skillet and saute the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the brussels sprouts and continue sauteing for another 4-5 minutes, until bright green and tender. Add the sea salt and brown sugar and toss together. Finish by adding the toasted nuts.
Time:
20 minutes






Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger (this looks harder)



(Makes 8)

• 15oz black beans, drained + rinsed
• 3c cubed sweet tater, cooked + skin on [~1.5lbs]
• 1/2c frozen or fresh corn
• 2/3c finely chopped onion [1/2 medium onion]
• 2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1/2c cooked quinoa
• 6T rolled oats, partially ground
• 2T sunflower seeds
• 1/2t salt
• black pepper
• 1t cumin
• 1t oregano
• 1/4t coriander
• 1t chili powder
• 1/4t cayenne [optional]
• 1T olive oil

1. Preheat your oven to 375* once you finish cooking the quinoa + potato.
2. Mash half of the beans in a bowl until paste-like.
3. Add in the rest of the beans and give a very light stir/mash to combine.
4. In a large bowl, mash the sweet tater.  Each cube should be mashed, but you don’t want it creamy.
5. Stir in the salt, pepper, oregano, coriander, chili powder, cayenne [if using] and olive oil, until combined.
6. Mix in the onion, garlic, corn, black beans, quinoa, sunflower seeds, and ground oats, until just combined.
7. Taste, and adjust seasonings to your liking.
8. Form into balls, between your hands and flatten into 1/2”-3/4” thick patties.  This should make 8 medium/large patties.
9. Place on a pan lined with parchment paper [or lightly greased pan] and bake on each side for 15min, flipping once, half-way through.
10. Remove from oven + serve! 

And of course dessert- Snickerdoodle Blondies - uh YUM (maybe not so healthy but dessert isn't supposed to be)

• 2 2/3 cups AP flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup softened butter
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• a pinch turbinado sugar

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan. Combine flour baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and set aside.

2.) In a large bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar for 3-5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until smooth.

3.) Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Combine the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and turbinado sugar in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

4.) Bake 25-30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. Cool before cutting. Makes 20-24 bars.

Let the Unhealthy Begin!

It's on.

For the next 3 days my body is going to hate me.  I am going to be eating the bare minimum and then starting Sunday around 1pm I am going to consume no liquids or food and sit in a sauna.  I can't lose.  I promise on Monday after weigh in at 8:30am I will go back to eating healthy.  Besides getting skinny, this little competition has been pretty positive for me, regardless of whether or not I lose (which I won't).  First, I no longer feel the need to snack all of the time and it has lessened my need for something sweet after every meal.  Second, it has gotten me on a great routine of getting up at 5:15am 3-4 times a week to go to the gym.  Going to the gym in the morning is great.  A.  You don't have to fight for a machine. B. Everything is clean and no one's in there to smell it up yet.  C. Its too early for your body to register what you are making it do so it just goes along with it.  D.  None of your friends are up to convince you that going to happy hour is better than going to the gym, which duh, happy hour trumps gym every time. 

So this weekend I am going to see what NYC is all about if you don't eat or drink.  I have no clue what this entails.  That is basically all I do  because otherwise you spend gobs of money on shows and shopping.  A tad bit of shopping might happen but shows aren't my thing.  I get antsy and bored half way through which usually leads me to eating (can't happen).  

Motivation:

I beg to differ... Obvi girl's never had a cheeseburger, or a burrito... or a chocolate chip cookie.

M.B.O.A.

Missing because of action.

I left last Thursday to go to Boston for the weekend to see some friends and some boy I kind of like a little bit.  It was a GREAT weekend filled with hiking adventures, hanging around Boston and fun.  Once I returned home, life has been non-stop.  I joined a coed indoor soccer league here in NYC and last night was our first game.  My team is a "free agent" team meaning everyone shows up knowing no one on their team.  Awesome.  I have never been so nervous for something that is supposed to be fun in my entire life.  Luckily I wasn't the worst, obviously far from the best, but I didn't completely embarrass myself and my team won 6-4.  Today, every part of my body hurts.  I feel like I was thrown into a concrete wall a few times, oh wait, I was.  Can't wait for the next game. 

As for the diet.  I have 2 lbs to go which is shocking since I feel like I haven't been that extreme.  Maybe I did have some weight to lose.  But to ensure that I jump on that scale safe I am eating cabbage soup all week.  I am not following the "official" cabbage soup diet found here because honestly it sounds like a lot of food.  I think it would've been great to follow if it was week one of this whole adventures in weightloss fun, but I can't chance how my body might react to 10-20 ounces of beef on day 5 or 2-3 steaks on day 6.  Boys, thats a lot of meat.   The soup itself is actually very tasty and my version is about 62 calories a cup, maybe even less.  I made sure to make mine spicy and I left out the bouillon cubes.  Too much sodium.    Every day this week my mom and I have been mapping out my revenge on dieting by planning every meal from breakfast, lunch, dinner to happy hour apps that will start the minute I get off the plane for Thanksgiving.  Can. Not. Wait.

Happy cabbage Wednesday!

Shout out to Kelsey Marie Mitman

Kelsey has now been taken off of my list of banned items and is now on my list of over achievers.  This little munchkin just found out that next year she will be teaching Elementary school in Atlanta through Teach For America.  THIS IS HUGE AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER!!  Hence why I am taking a break from talking about me and making it all about her... for at least a post.  I can't think of anyone that would make a better teacher.  Especially for youngsters in Elementary school.  She has one of the biggest hearts and is great with kids, not to mention shes a bundle of fun no matter what the situation. 

I wanted to have a mini timeline with pictures of me and Kelsey except apparently we don't like to take many appropriate pictures together that really show how great of an influence she is going to be on these kids, so here's just a few.

  

So if you are lucky to know this Kelsey girl I call my best friend tell her congrats and give her a pat on the butt back!

Crunch Time

It has been the longest day EVER.  I realized that it didn't help the watch I am wearing is pre-daylight savings so I've thought it was an hour later all day only to constantly have to go back in time.  Talk about bad déjà vu.  I am also so hungry.  I knew I liked food but I had no idea how it affected my mood.   I once took a "what kind of eater are you" test and the three choices were, boredom, stress, or energy.  I chose stress eater.  False.  I eat for energy and happiness.  I am not in a good mood today to say the least.  Weigh in is in 2 weeks and I have 7 lbs to lose.  Sounds impossible. Mostly because it is, especially if you expect to do it in any sort of healthy way.   This week involves as few as calories as possible.  I am sure I will destroy whatever weight I lose this weekend so I am saving the last seven days for the cabbage soup diet.  I have only read negative things about this diet.  Mostly about how bad it is for you because you lose so much weight in such a short amount of time.  Diet jackpot.   That is exactly what I am going for, cabbage soup it is! 

On a positive note, after these next two miserable weeks,  I am going to be SO skinny... maybe not for long but I'll get a taste of how skinny feels, which I can go ahead and say probably feels hungry.

 Diet Humor

Preview

I have not recovered from this weekend therefore I do not have the energy to form sentences or use proper punctuation/grammar.  To give you an idea, it started off with Greg and Kelsey handing me a beer at the arrivals gate in Raleigh around 7:30pm on Friday.   From there on it is all a blurry mess until Sunday morning when my aunt Shannon picked me up to hang with her and my cousins for the day.  

Note to self: Added to my list of banned things besides open bars and buffets: partying with Kelsey Mitman (love her, we are just way too perfect for each other, but so are me and open bars and buffets- no good ever comes of us being together).

More pics to come...

Oh, and how about that Wolfpack?!?!

Mmm byeee

Welp I'm hopping on a plane to North Carolina this afternoon to pretend I am in college again.  This should be exciting and dangerous.  It's the NC State vs UNC football game, aka watch NC State get crushed (which I probably won't watch because it will be too depressing so I will just have to hear about it).  Tailgating starts at 7:30am tomorrow morning.  I am out of practice and haven't really been eating anything besides miso and apples which adds double excitement to how this weekend is going to turn out.   A bunch of people I haven't seen since I graduated are going to be there and its just going to be one big college/Morganton reunion.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures on Monday.

As for my weigh in, didn't happen.  I like Fridays to be happy. 

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

F This.

This is a dumb diet.  Its ridiculous to even think about sticking to only eating apples even for such a short amount of time.  I am sure there would've been great results if I could've made it through day 1 without altering the diet.  However, since I really only cheated with wine and miso soup both days (obvi on a huge miso soup kick right now) I can definitely tell that I have probably lost a lb or two.  The scale will tell all tomorrow.  I could actually stick to this diet for a few weeks as long as there is some kind of soup involved.  I love soup.  Especially when its cold outside.  Trader Joe's has the best box soup thats low on sodium (a biggie to watch for when buying soup) and it's cheap!  I need to start brainstorming about next weeks insane diet.  If anyone has any suggestions of something they have recently wanted to try, I will be your guinea pig.  Except for that lemonade diet thing.  Tried that for a solid hour.  Fail.


My friend Kelsey and I started a google doc for our favorite quotes.  I'm sure she wouldn't mind if started sharing one a day.  Here's one of my favorites.  AND its about apples!  How relevant. 

“Girls are like apples on trees.  The best ones are at the top of the tree. The boys don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.  Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground that aren’t as good, but easy.  So the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they’re amazing.  They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who’s brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.”

Girl. Power.

Apples to Apples

Why can't dieting on only apples be as fun as that game?

Day 1 ended up not being so bad.  I added a couple of things to the diet, a glass of wine and a cup of Miso soup.  I don't think it set me back too far but tonight I will try to hold strong and leave out the miso soup. 

Day 2 of eating apples.  I am not completely over them, but I would really love a cheeseburger.  As for hunger pains, it hasn't really been an issue as long as I don't go too long without an apple.  I have no clue if I have lost any weight because I refuse to step on the scale until Friday.  That way if the number hasn't changed I have the weekend to cope by eating everything I see (aka. eating stress).
 
I have learned so much about myself and apples over the past 24 hours: 
1.  I really don't like granny smith.  I thought they were my favorite.  Which I think they probably still are but only when dipped in chocolate or caramel.  I guess its that sour/sweet mix that makes them yummy.  The skins are also the toughest of all the apples and hurt my teeth sometimes.
2. Golden delicious are the best for breakfast.
3. One apple fills me up for a solid 4 hours.
4. I feel like I am getting more out of an apple when I cut it into slices rather than eat it whole.
5. Adding cinnamon helps a lot when really the last thing you want to do is eat another apple.

Q: Why did Eve move to New York?

A: She fell for the BIG APPLE.   Haaaa.  If you have any great apple jokes, please, feel free to share.


  As for tonight, I will be skipping the gym and having a glass of wine with Julie while doing laundry.  I am a strong believer in a glass of wine a day will keep the doctor away (pun intended).  Read about it if you think I am lying.
Here: Benefits of red wine
or Here: Webmd says so too

Call me French if you must, but Cheers to that!

First Post!

A friend of mine suggested that I start a blog to share the billions of random thoughts that go through my head on the daily.  Aren't y'all lucky to get to read the nonsense that passes through my brain.  Don't fret.  I'll try to keep it entertaining.  Here it goes!

Today I have to get a flu shot.  I got guilted in to signing up for one by my mother at the lovely pharmacy.  For anyone that knows me well, knows that I absolutely hate shots.  HATE them.  I would rather get the flu than get the shot.  There is something about a needle intentionally pricking me that makes my blood pressure skyrocket and I get the sweats.  The "pain" (lets be real, it doesn't actually hurt) is not what I am scared of.  I once played back to back field hockey and soccer games on a fractured femur bone (not well, but I get determined)  and only minorly winced (cried) from the pain.  I am a beast.  Anyways, in the middle of me complaining about this shot, my turn came up.  Now I have a dead left arm.  Awesome.

Also going on in my life.  A weight loss competition.  Anyone that wanted to participate voluntarily put up $500 to lose 10% of their body weight in 3 months.   I see the word competition and say sign me up!  Really need to tame this competitive side of mine. A. I don't have $500 just chilling in my bank account I want to waste on congratulating fat guys for getting skinny.  B.  I'm not really overweight.   Everyone in the competition besides me are guys and for them, losing 10% of their body weight should be easy. For me, not so much.  But since I am a girl, that automatically means that anorexia is in my blood.  I've never actually been a successful anorexic, it usually lasts about 2 hours and when I feel the slightest bit of hunger pain I cave and eat whatever is in sight.  I think this is actually part of that other disease... binging and purging... except I forget to purge.  Well there are 3 weeks to go before the final weigh in (set for Nov 21st) and I have about 6 - 8lbs (depends on what I did the night before) left to lose.  So for the next 3 weeks I will be coming up with some creative dieting methods.  Warning, they probably won't be so healthy.  This weeks is "the apple diet".  No you won't be finding a book on this one but its pretty simple.  Only eat organic apples for 3 days.  I originally wanted to try this because apparently it's a good detox for your skin, but the way I see it, is there is no possible way you can gain weight or even maintain your current weight by just eating apples.  So this is what I am calling a two for one diet- getting pretty skin AND dropping some L-B's.  (Other plus's, apples are cheap, there's a wide variety and shockingly they really do all taste different, and one word, fiber.)  I'll keep you updated.  This is day 1 and I am only 5 hours into it.  So far so good.

Well this has been fun, I can see why this blogging thing is so popular.  Hopefully Ill keep it up.




Disclaimer: I do not support eating disorders.  Or drugs.